What I did: Completed the “Basics 1”, “The” and “Basics 2” sections of German on Duolingo. This allowed me to practice essential vocabulary such as “Mann” and “Frau” as well as a bit of practice on the different endings of verbs depending on the subject, which we learned about this week. 

How it went and next steps: I found that the vocabulary stuck in my head very quickly through this method. I will progress further from this by trying to complete at least one Duolingo lesson a day.

What I did: Since we learned a lot of vocabulary this week, I decided to make a deck on Anki containing a list of school subjects, jobs and countries in order to help me learn them.

How it went and next steps: When reviewing these words, I would often be able to remember the pronunciation of the word, but when trying to spell it there were some problems. To overcome this problem, I will try to do more practice in the future by listening and then writing what I hear and checking if I got the correct spelling afterwards.

What I did: I practiced the numbers in German by first writing down basic mathematical equations in German and figuring them out. When answering I made sure to say the answer out loud before writing it down in order to reinforce them.

How it went and next steps: It often took me a long time to remember the correct number, but I don’t think I made many mistakes when it came down to it, and this got better the more I did. One problem I did encounter a lot though was that I often mixed up “zwei” and “drei”. I have decided that in order to get rid of this confusion I am going to check the clock throughout the day and say the time out loud to myself in German, as I believe this will reinforce the images of the number with the pronunciation.

What I did: I watched this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5poZVylM920) on common German verbs and added them to my Anki deck to review them. I also wrote them all out on paper and practiced conjugating them correctly for each person.

How it went and next steps: I enjoyed watching this video as it showed the verbs being used in example sentences so I could get used to how to use them a lot quicker. From this I have decided that whenever I learn new verbs now I will always add an example sentence with them, so I get more context on how they are used.

What I did: As I enjoyed the video I used last week, I decided to watch this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VowGvnRU_s) from the same channel explaining about cases in German. As we learned the nominative and accusative this week, I paid most attention to these. I also took some notes on this while watching so that I could always remind myself of the information when needed.

How it went and next steps: I found this video really helped reinforce the information learned in class and I now feel more confident in differentiating between the two cases. But I believe I still need more practice in applying this theory so I will make sure to concentrate on this whenever I am writing or speaking German.

What I did: This week I wanted to improve my German listening abilities as I believe they are lagging behind my reading and writing skills. Therefore, I watched this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6td-euJbIk) really concentrating on understanding what was being said without reading it at first and then checking by going through it again whilst looking what was written.

How it went and next steps: This video really helped me as I definitely did not have enough listening practice beforehand so by listening more I became able to hear and comprehend what was being said more easily. To continue with this, I will watch and listen to at least one conversational German video every week.

What I did: I read through the grammar section on dislikes and likes in this website (https://learngerman.dw.com/en/comparative-1/l-37599970/gr-38305939) whilst making notes and also completed exercises 5-6 here (https://learngerman.dw.com/en/comparison-gern-lieber-am-liebsten-2/l-37599970/e-37600693)

How it went and next steps: Reading through the grammar again helped me a lot as originally I found the word order of this structure to be a bit confusing. But doing this reading and then actively having to answer questions using that grammar has allowed it to stick in my head. Moving forward I would like to do more active exercises like this right after learning grammar to help it stick.

What I did: This week I decided to do use BBC Bitesize (https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zws8qty/revision/1) to revise and use a variety of grammar and vocabulary. I did sections 1-3 of this.

How it went and next steps: I really enjoyed the layout of BBC Bitesize as it included a range of activities allowing to practice my German in multiple ways, so I believe it is a great revision tool. Therefore, I will continue to use it in my revision in the future.